thank you. after seeing over this last winter how my 1 kW wind turbine (given I've had only single 1 kW 2.5m dia unit) easily outperforms 1 kW of solar (given I have 43 kW of solar panels mounted) in about 70% of days from the 1-st of November till 28-th of February I am adding way more this year. I'll have total of 6 of them, 3 of which are toys (1x1.3 m dia, 2x1.65 m dia) and 3 are medium size (2.3, 2.5 and 3.2 m in diameter)... And unfortunately I can't stop thinking of adding something of about 5.3-6.0 meters in diameter size ))) But that would be not this year's project already. btw, we talked about solar optimizers earlier. they arrived, are installed, and work absolutely amazing in a one sting having panels split amount absolutely various azimuths and slopes. that allowed me to achieve smoother curve during a day, having much more production during mornings and evenings, without losing anything (and actually even gaining a bit) in the midday. and hi from Bucha, from Ukraine.
Ah yes, I remember talking with you about optimisers - great to hear it’s all working out! 😀 Thanks for sharing your experiences with trying out various wind turbines 👍🏻
G'day Gary, we set up an off grid system to supply a cottage on our farm in central Victoria. solar panels lithium batteries and a 400W wind turbine on a steel pole like a flagpole so you simply remove one bolt to lower it, it's only five metres high. We also added a diesel generator linked through and ATS, it's sunny and windy at times and at night as you said. The solar alone was not quite enough the wind has complimented the system perfectly, its all housed in a separate steel shed 👍.
As a general rule for a turbine you will be looking at £4-5k per kW for something usable, each kW will generate 4x as much MWh. So a 5kW turbine will cost you £20-25k and will produce 20MWh per year. Maintenance I've seen is closer to 5% per year all in as well. Suitable for such limited situations it really isn't worth considering for 99% of people. Small scale hydro on the other hand.... now there's a topic
@@GaryDoesSolardepends where you are. We have had an 11kW Gaia since mid-2011 and annual output has ranged from 18,000 kWh to 28,000 kWh. You need to be in a very windy place to get 20,000 kWh from a 5kW turbine. And turbulence kills generation so sticking it on your house just won’t work. You need a lot of land with no trees or buildings
@@n111aow your figures are more accurate. We were recently quoted for a 5kw:p Ryse energy turbine on an 18m lattice in our field. Average wind speed at the location is 5.5m/s. Company said it would generate 6mw of electricity a year. Annual maintenance - inspection greasing bearings etc was €180 if you had a lattice tower rather than a pole. We were originally looking at this as an island hybrid system with a 6kw solar array. Have decided to just go with the solar for now - 11kw and monitor our consumption needs over a couple of years. Big grants for solar and home insulation here- no support for turbine installs
@@adzy166 thanks. I didn’t mention maintenance which is around £700 pa average. But that doesn’t include the new blade we just had fitted (about £17k) or the under warranty blade after first year or under warranty new nacelle after 4 years (we had to pay about £2k labour for that. Total generation after 13 years has been 292,000 kWh
Thanks for this Gary. I was thinking, if you did actually get 131 watts average all year round, that’s roughly equivalent to what a household freezer uses. So, assuming 1100 kWh per year, and 30c per kWh that costs 330 euro per year. My freezer is usually full of stuff for months. I think there’s an argument for a smaller more efficient freezer. Same goes for all devices in the house.
Always good to see someone, who takes a proper and knowledgable look at "domestic wind power". There are far too many channels out there, that are trying to grab attention by hyping this as the "next big thing" after solar, despite all the glaring disadvantages.
@bertramdieterich6261 Right? I'm tired of all those stupid thumbnails with a big random number in them, like "740% wind power?!?!?!" Useless clickbait.
Thank you. I have been charmed and fascinated by wind turbines for decades. Really! I had a 3Kw solar array on my home in So, California for 20 years. Best thing I ever did! Saved me tons in electricity cost. I kept my hot tub on 24/7/365 and paid about $35/mo for electricity for a 1,100 sq ft home, and my AC/heat was ON and I was COMFY. I'm disappointed, but you may have just convinced to give up on my long term DREAM to have a wind turbine. I didn't even care if it didn't perform spectacularly. Here in N. Portugal the sun is more like in Portland or Seattle; winters are GREY!!!! BUT I have few (aka NO ) surrouding buildings near me, and my neighbors are low profile. Result of your video: I'll put solar (AGAIN) but will take my time and later add a small wind turbine as a hobbyist. My bet is that it performs better than expected. Because just a couple miles from the Atlantic with little to now trees and buildings AND with howling winds in cold grey winter; it's gotta be almost as good as solar. Probably better on a significant number of grey, stormy, rainy, WINDY days.
French Island off the Victorian coast is entirely off grid. Plenty of homes and businesses use a combination of wind and solar there, and some have backup diesel generators too.
@@davidunwin7868 I know French Island and was also just browsing the Wind Atlas - it's all in red down there. Having visited the area for 46 years off and on, can confirm it's windy as hell.
My brother in law has an off grid vehicle and farm equipment workshop in rural Ireland. He built himself a wind turbine mounted on a telegraph pole, the blades are around 1.6m in length. The turbine compresses air into a large cylinder for use inflating tyres, spraying paint and cleaning equipment. He's ever so proud of it. For nearly everything else he has a diesel generator which runs heavy equipment and also charges some old discarded car batteries to run his lighting. For heating he still visits the bog each year to cut turf.
@@rogerphelps9939 he's 66, dyslexic, lives alone, he understands machinery, enjoys working with it, probably only charges about minimum wage for his services, so doesn't have a great deal of spare cash. What he has works for him.
Most turbines deliver on average about 500w per m2, not 800w like advertised. In belgium there are about 2000 h full speed wind per annum, on the see about double the amount. 2000h x 500w = 1000 kWh/y. This is equivalent to roughly 3 solar panels. Given the high cost of order 10k all in for a turbine, this is several times a lower ROI. Not an option currently. Moreover, any government keeps close control over this type of generation, it is too lucrative on large scale, that is why usa forbids foreign investorcompanies. Thanks gary, nice work to inform people.
15 plus years ago B&Q decided to sell wind turbines. They cost around £1,000 including installation. We bought one, subject to the results of a survey. That was very informative. The surveyer told us he had to decline over 90% due to location. Basically, if you have no trees or buildings for a mile radius around the turbine, you are OK. (Think Farm). Practically anything else, you are wasting your money. And that did not even take into account the noise factor, as you mentioned. There are some new developments being worked on, specifically designed for the urban environment, where wind enters from the bottom of a pipe, from any direction, and drives a vertically mounted turbine. Not in production yet, and again, would probably only be useful in a pretty windy area. With the drop in the cost of solar PV, it would probably be an expensive toy if you bought one!
It's only expensive if you have other people install it for you, my wind turbines work very well, again not better than solar, but together you notice the difference, I'm in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, no power or water right now for 4 days...it's raining today, great day for that wind turbine to help out solar 😂.
Well presented! I did the math and concluded there is just no way to argue with physics. I've always had a tough time to explain this so I'll be linking this video in the future. Wind power makes a lot of sense when you install them on a utility scale
Nice video. I remember during David Cameron’s “green phase” when he was pictured riding his bike to work, sledging in the Artic with huskies etc, he had a wind turbine fixed to his family home in Wandsworth. I believe it was a “Windsave” model which at the time was being sold in B&Q. Needless to say the Windsave was not stocked by B&Q for long and Cameron is rumoured to have found that the inverter for the wind turbine used more electricity than the turbine generated, suffice to say it was taken down. A turbine is only likely to be suitable if you live in the country in a windy area where you can erect one of sufficient size and height. If you want to invest in wind power then something like an investment in Ripple wind farm or a financial investment in something like Greencoat Wind Investment Trust is likely to be a better bet.
Haha - no wonder Cameron later turned against renewables (“the green crap”) !! Agreed, there will hopefully be great opportunities to invest in large-scale wind farms going forward, building on what Ripple has done 👍🏻
Ah! you mean his Hug a Husky phase. Didn't know he'd put a turbine up, anything for a bit of good PR I guess. I remember going into a B&Q with my dad for something or other and them having a small wind turbine and solar panel on display in the glass entrance foyer with a salesman handing out brochures in what I took to be a concessionary arrangement. My dad was quite interested and had a chat with me once we got in the store proper out of earshot of the salesman, I think he'd of ordered one there and then if I'd said I thought it worthwhile, so I did a quick bit of mental arithmetic on how many years to pay for itself at its claimed rated output and doubling that in the hope of getting something vaguely approximate of the best possible pay back time and doubled that to what I would have hoped would be the worse, didn't seem great to me compared to interest from leaving the money in the bank and I was concerned about noise, but I know from a little subsequent research that even that would have been hopelessly optimistic. The house was at the end of a cul-de-sac and on windy day the wind would whip down the road channeled by the houses and through the gap between his and a neighbours, creating a great deal of turbulence with the direction constantly flipping against the prevailing wind when it gusts, so it wouldn't have made a good location either, probably broken it in fact. A small turbine might make some sense to charge a 12 volt battery in a remote off-grid location, for everything else very large scale seems vital.
15 minutes of my time well invested. I’ve often thought of a wind turbine as the locals where I live call it “windy hill”. Shelving that thought is Gary’s considered conclusion. Thank you.
@@GaryDoesSolar I fell in the marketing of wind turbines. My 400 watts solar panel generates on average 150 watts per day. My 400 watts wind turbine generates on average 20 watts per day.
A great opportunity for people to have a direct involvement with wind generation without having to have their own equipment 👍🏻 Financial return potentially limited though, depending on the deal…
Another consideration is to make sure the install doesn't cast a shadow on your, or your neighbors, solar panels. It doesn't take much shadow area, to significantly reduce the output of a solar array. If you have a farm or a ranch, turbines are an ideal complement to a photovoltaic (solar) system, but, they're a bit of a "no go" in residential areas. It's more than possible, that the overall reduction of output from the shadow cast on adjacent solar panels can be greater than what the turbine itself can produce, causing an overall reduction, rather than increase in renewable energy in that immediate area.
30 years ago, when I was first investigating Wind, Solar, and Micro Hydro, there was a much more compelling argument to a combined system. Solar was massively more expensive than it is now, and the relative cost of Inverters and Storage was much higher. In order to get good use out of all that expensive equipment, the incremental cost of Wind was minor. Now with the low price of Solar, High Frequency Inverters and Lithium Batteries... Adding extra capacity with extra Solar Panels is way cheaper than a combined system. If you have flowing water on your property though, nothing beats Micro Hydro still.
@@GaryDoesSolar Illinois EnergyProf is also well worth a view. It is a wider scope with more of a emphasis on big grid power but I found it very interesting and informative. www.youtube.com/@illinoisenergyprof6878/videos Example of one that might be of interest is "How Solar Cells Work" th-cam.com/video/OKfeIistD2A/w-d-xo.html Squeaky pen is a feature!
Great video. Especially the explanation of the cubing effect. Some info that may help others:I installed two small turbines 3 years ago. Both 2.2m diameter on 8.5m guyed poles. When solar dies off from Nov through Feb , wind takes over. Never a day then when my batteries aren't charged up. (10kwh lead acid). Great resilience for power cuts. Turbines were £600 each but poles, concrete, guys, batteries and control circuits were another £2000. So payoff period is long/never. But the resilience is very reassuring living out in the sticks. The turbines are ista i1500 3 blade 24v. Probably the only good but cheap turbines out there. Worth mentioning that horizontal 3 blade is the only sensible design. The rest are daft gimmicks. Rosie's Engineering channel describes why.
Clearly you live on the top of a hill or on the coast where there are high mean wind speeds If not you are probably trying to drum up business for one of these domestic wind turbine companies
@@rogerphelps9939 I am in open countryside. Quite windy from Mid Oct through Feb/March. Nope, not trying to drum up business for any particular vendor. Just trying to give a realistic impression from what to expect. I did say that the payback is very long or even never at this scale, but gives great resilience for power cuts. No good typically, for urban areas though. I also said that the other costs for dumploads, masts, controllers were several times higher than the cost of the turbine itself. Very interesting "hobby" too, if you're interested in this kind of thing. Gary's very clear explanation of the cubing effect really plays out. When wind is at 5-10mph gusting to 15-20mph, my power outputs from both turbines zooms up and down between 40-50watts and 800-1500watts in just a few seconds. Does this all day in winter. So you need to have good cabling and dumploads that can absorb peaks. I have no allegiance to any vendor. In fact I'm looking to upgrade on of my 2.2m diameter turbines for a 3.8m turbine which is around £1200. ( and demonstrating my impartiality i'm not mentioning any vendor names either )
Loved your video. Very informative. In a nutshell, with current technology and financials, you are saying that wind is not worth it for a home installation. Wind on an industrial scale, well that is something else. Loved the way you explained the formulas. I also liked other video you put up in the past as well. Thanks. Cheers.
I'm in Australia. We have had a few weeks of hectic winds. I have always been curious about wind turbines. Honestly, that global wind map thing settled the whole discussion in my head. I'd be looking at 3k/h winds at 10m high. I don't even want to go that high. For the same cost I could add more solar and be better off. But honestly, I think the best solution for my set up is more battery capacity. Displacing the energy I already produce seems like the best way to reduce my costs. I'll probably wait 5-10 years before upgrading my Powerwall 2 to a 3 phase compatible battery and will get aim for over 30kWh capacity. The wait is partly for technology to advance and partly for my pockets to get some time to fill :p
Thank you for some concise and clear information. I have a property in Spain which I'm trying to make self sufficient via solar/wind etc with battery storage. The property ticks most boxes. It's 300m elevation up a 'mountain' with clear areas all round including to the Med about 2/3 miles away.
I have 2 wind turbines, I'm not happy with my purchase...I'm SUPER HAPPY with my purchase 😂, I'm in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, we just got hit by tropical storm Ernesto, my area has no power and water right now as I comment, it's day 4 , no power, no water, on rainy days solar is weak, but complemented by wind to compensate. I left up my small wind turbine up during the storm, it generated enough power at night to keep my fridge running for a couple of hours, agreed that it's not better than solar, but it's that extra hand picking you up when in need...my bigger turbine is a tilt down design I put together for storms and hurricanes.
@CptFugu MI turbine trabaja muy bien, El esta probando turbinas baratas, Y no la esta probando a la altura correctas, y Los cotroladoras de cargas que esta usando no son Las mejores, cuando mis molinos estan corriendo, y produciendo demas, la cargo exsesiva es transferida a resistores que se ponen Caliente ...mis resistores son fuertes, tiene que ver carga fuerte para calentar, Los molinos son para asistir Las placas en dias de lluvia, y trabaja muy bien.
Back in the '80s I used to work at Exxon Chemical Research, just down the A34 from you in Milton Hill. Nice vid but I concluded a long time ago that domestic scale wind power would never fly.
Thanks Gary, another extremely informative video. Neighbours and 'higher management' would make a turbine difficult for me so I will continue to work on the 'additional solar' option. Only one issue remains to be solved and its not my Neighbours!!!
I fitted a wind turbine last year supposedly rated 2,000W but I knew that due to its swept area it could only ever generate 200W in a gale and it does do that but for the rest of the time it chunters along at less than 20W so is fine for keeping a charge on the batteries but not much good for energy production. Now if I lived in the outer Hebrides it would be a whole different ball game as the wind there is consistently available and powerful enough to make these units sensible.
Yeah, I think that's the key for home wind turbines - an almost constant steady, clean wind. And the outer islands of Scotland are a great place to get such...
I own a wind turbine, firstly location, location and location, i live in a rural area, with a Wind turbine with a wind valley off the sea, in orkney which is known for being windy. at a cost of 30,000, you have to add on maintaining it, roughly £1,000 a year, include insurance, (if built on Garden ground you can add it to the house insurance, Now it produces 18,000 kwh, to maximise your return, you need to use as much of the energy as you can, best option is to install a renewable heating system , and batteries, and own an EV car, however check your wind speeds in your area, and do experiments on the impact of buildings around you its a large purchase and can save you money but so can a solar panel array and batteries with a lesser cost outlay
I did! I did! I liked it! :) So glad you mentioned noise! Some of these turbines are like a Disney swordfight on steroids!! However, there is a UK made turbine that I used for over 12 years on my boat. Its designed and certified for urban use. Not an advert since I have no connection with the company but the D400 from Eclectic Energy is robust and generates pretty efficiently. However, I considered it a 'background benefit' on the boat and would not consider it unless I lived in a particularly windy place (thinking Bahamas in the trade winds - dream on). In a 20kt trade wind t would run the fridge and freezer for 24hours as well as other modest draws (battery buffered) like boiling a kettle and running computers.
Thankyou Gary. Im watching from Australia (Sydney) where ofcourse solar is the best source of energy. But I was curious about supplementing it with wind and the algorithm brought me to your very informative video. I live coastal and get a very reliable sea breeze, but also that means very intense during storms and sudden wind changes are common. I nerdily and actually enjoyed the mathematics section. With so much lithium in the Outback, and improvements to battery technology. Im looking forward to the 'supplementary' backup being storage, not just more generation. Will make sure to watch the rest of your videos :)
I'd looked at them in our previous house and considered it uninvestable. Two years ago we moved to the West country and we have a wind farm (with nine large units) about 1.5 miles from us. The owner of the wind farm credits our Octopus Energy account with about £140 a year for the inconvenience. It's a good deal for us as the turbines are hidden behind a bank of trees and we get no wind noise whatsoever from them. As a retired engineer, the majesty of them, their grace and the design appeals (how sad am I?) , as does the green credentials. It's about the only wind turbine investment worth having for us, as it simply pays out! We have a field adjacent to our garden and, in theory, we could put a turbine there on a mast. I considered it for about one and a half minutes and decided against the idea. I didn't bother with the complicated equations (although your explanation and worked examples are very useful to illustrate the viability): Although, in theory, we could capitalise on the same wind as the wind farm, trees adjacent to the field would kill the production and.... I'd rather see the trees and keep £20K+ in our bank account!
I installed a small 500 W wind turbine on a 60 foot pole in an area that gets decent wind. I had it up for many many years and if you add it up , all of its energy production versus how much money I spent installing it, it would fall into the category of Useless. You could buy some used solar panels and toss them in the dirt and get better production. Other than commercial scale they are rarely a worthy investment. Extreme latitudes could definitely make a better argument though.
I reckon after solar the only one that makes sense for homes is water turbines if you have the requites stream. Years ago 1980s I did some work for a customer who'd converted an old water mill into a residence. Even then I thought you know what you could concievebaly go off grid with a water turbine replacing the old mill stones. Otherwise PV is the only game in town for most.
Cousin installed a windmill, with all the required documentation, only to have to remove it later in the piece because of complaints from neighbours, re noise pollution and when it rained locals complained of shadowing on their tvs. Semi rural area as well!
Looked into wind turbines. Not with an unrealistic view, I only wanted to cover the overnight house load of 50 to 100watts (possibly a little more but not including heating use). There are some units but the cost and potential noise has put me off. But I have a river running past the house and this has a better potential. The only issue is a suitable device which can cope with the rise and fall of the water height and the speed changes. A 200watt waterwheel would be magic if I could get one
Usually better to just purchase more PV or batteries. Your PV will be under warranty for 20+ years, people have to go up and fix their turbines because of moving parts
I think it’s more interesting to look for generation that can be applied in built-up areas so winter turbines that are horizontal unlikely to be any use because the windows of the variety it’s not a clean straight wind but there are several designs which capture the win from all directions through Luvvers and so on and direct them through through vertical-axis turbines that scavenge run lower speeds but can overtime do very well in terms of charging batteries for our use domestically
Maybe you should rename the channel Gary Loves Solar you were quite evangelistic at the end. Very useful video to show if you don’t have a couple of acres, wind is a no go. Did see a hillside property with a stream that had a water turbine micro generator did as much a a 6kW solar system.
I've done some measurements in the garden, and in one spot, averaged for a month, at only 2m height, I get a windspeed of 3.99M/s. Using the Britwind r9000 blade radius of 2.75 metres, even at the ground I'd get 2.8 MWh a year. Using Wind Atlas at the same location, at 10m I'd get 7MWh. So agreed, it would be nuts to add one to your house in a housing estate in slough, but for us hillside country dwellers, it might be worth it. Other thing was, I was quoted £35k to supply and fit the Britwind, so assuming these numbers, and a 20-year life, this would be 25 pence per kWh (versus my about 11 pence for solar). I'd like to see Wind Atlas data at 16 and 20 metres, as those are the mast heights of small commercial turbines.
Yeah, it's just really hard to make the business case, eh? Even for a great wind location! That said, I've heard from a few people who live on the Orkney Islands north of Scotland who achieve a great ROI on home wind power.
I really would love wind turbines to be worth it for domestic property especially for winter generation. But as you’ve alluded to, the laws of physics point towards bigger = better! They simply don’t scale down the same way that Solar does. That said, if you could somehow magic up a wind turbine for £200 (all in) that was actually good….. it might be worth a punt! And I’m sure planning permission has exemptions for temporary structures,….. popup wind turbines spring to mind.
Hi Anthony, worth checking out Everything Electric channel as I think they were trying out a popup turbine - it certainly seemed to be able to put some decent charge into a portable battery unit! I don't think they showed detailed numbers though...!
@@GaryDoesSolar yes I’ve saw the episode. It’s definitely a “bit rough around the edges”. But that said, I wish them the best of fortunes. I’m sure future iterations of the design will become better by every measure. I’d be happy to offer my access to windier locations to help test it out!
Thank you! You've definitely convinced not to go this route. Even though we live on a hill near the sea with average wind speeds of 7m/sec, it's simply not worth it. The technology is not reliable, robust, or affordable enough to embark on this route.
The Global Wind Atlas site sounds interesting. But as you say later, turbulence is a huge factor as well as wind speed. I wonder if people could set up wifi-connected anemometers to get metrics for a couple years first before deciding to invest.
First step if you think about this check the average wind speed in your area(less than 2m/s in my case) Looking at that map it turns out that most urban areas are located in the less windy zones.
Its so very nice boss, but we hàve the issue of climate not to disregards, aldo there iaremew designs of wind turbines that can stand strong flow of winds like in during typhon season but it cost too much, but typhon just in a while compare to power to generate in summer.
Cheers, and yeah - it’s hard for any wind turbine design to usefully generate efficiently in low wind conditions yet survive in very high wind conditions, such is the variability of the climate today…
Rooftop PV panels can shade hot rooftops also. I like the idea, Hahaha 😊 Detailed analysis is very useful. Broader comments help framing the problem. 😊 I hope I am helping. 😊
@@GaryDoesSolar unfortunately they seem to be not produced… keep getting effectively null responses. And it’s a real shame, my parents house faces across the sea directly at the prevailing wind, with a roof pitch that would be *ideal* for ridgeblade.
Cheers Steve. Now, I should say that since my solar panels were installed in the UK, I've not had any electricity bills since (and they were nearly £3K/year before...)
The Problem of Solar is winter production, especially in offgrid situations. If you would size your solar system to produce enough in winter, you would need at least 4 times (sometimes 10 times) as much solar as you would need for a summer day. That increases the average cost of power by around 5 times. From cheap 8 Cents to 40 cents per kWh (up to 80 cents per kWh). If you compare it with that, you are that worse off with a wind turbine (given you are in a somewhat suitable location).
Fully agree. Home solar is a great idea. Home batteries are technically good, but provide at best a very mediocre financial return on investment compared to alternatives in most cases. Home wind turbines are a very, very bad idea in almost all cases due to the reasons you mentioned and more (expensive, low energy harvest, noise, vibration, eyesore, rotating shadows, maintenance, planning permissions, etc.). With wind turbines, a good rule of thumb is to either place a ginormous wind turbine in areas with lots wind or not do it at all.
What I thought about was getting an old wind borehole pump. Shouldn't be too pricey as most are not used any longer. Then connecting it to a generator. It could be a less expensive than buying a specifically built wind turbine and be bigger with a solid stand structure.
i had planned to add a wind turbine cos our south facing garden faces open farm fields.... that was till the council decided to build 160 houses on those fields!
@@GaryDoesSolar i fear alot of people be in the same position going by the new governments plans to relax planning restrictions. a solar farm is been built closeby, wish the had built it in the fields at back of me instead of housing :)
I didn't watch the video, but I'm not confident about doubling. A wind turbine does sound intriguing to me, though. A wind turbine can work day or night, but wind typically blows more forcefully at night, so having both would be very complimentary. I currently have solar panels, but my solar installer told me that Consumers Energy doesn't allow overcapacity. They had to analyze my bill to make sure I didn't go past 96% or something like that. I don't remember the exact percentage. Overall, I don't regret my decision.
Great video, very interesting. I remember the Real Life Architect looked at wind turbines attached to the side of properties a while back and with the constant vibrations there was a structural impact that negated any profit. The only possible exception was the RidgeBlade design but at the time that was only in development.
RidgeBlade has some issues. It cannot turn with the wind so you need to get lucky with the wind direction, it is (relativly) low so cannot get high wind speed although the roof pushing air up helps a bit and any noise would couple directly into the house far worse than any turbine. The real show stopper problem though is likely to be planning permission because "Any enlargement, improvement, or alteration to a house must not exceed the height of the highest part of the roof of the existing house. If it does, an application for planning permission will be required". Unless you have a chimney like in their front page photo this might be a big problem.
@@mtpaley1 Very good points, this technology always appears to be in development and from memory the company has moved its head office between various countries. I can’t see any wind technology working in the domestic environment in my opinion unless the property has plenty of land and no neighbours!
Yeah, apologies for this, Greg - I was trying to make the video more accessible, but actually I think people would have been happy learning some mathematical concepts 👍🏻 Thanks for your kind words about the video 😀
Its all about location and the amount of wind. If you are living in an urban area? Forget it. If you are living on a rural property in Saskatchewan? Great investment. I have two 2kw IstaBreeze on my system, as well as just shy of 12 kw of solar, and a 30kw battery. Im completely offgrid here. I have a diesel generator for bankup but I have only used it twice to charge the batteries. The wind is generally putting out 800-1200 watts per unit in a 20 mph breeze, which as anyone on the prairies will attest is basically the norm. Its not uncommon for me to wake up to full batteries with the wind going strong all night.
Is this equation accounting for the savings on drawing grid power? The price goes up with inflation over time, and if you’re on wholesale tariffs, the dinner time prices are frequently great value to export.
The UK is a windy country, but what your video demonstrates with some useful formulas is that the turbine has to be very large and very high up. Not something feasible in a domestic location. So, while solar is suitable for micro generation, wind isn’t and should be left to the big boys!
I've been curious about wind for a while, so thanks for doing the research and mental legwork for this well researched and science-based video. However, for a while, I have been wondering about a radically different approach... Have you ever experienced slamming doors on windy days when doors and windows are open on both sides of the house? The house is effectively acting as a wind break and channeling a flow of air through the house, which is what slams the doors. So could a suitably constructed house harness this effect to generate electricity? 🤔
Cheers Andrew - great feedback to receive! Now, on your radical approach, I’ve not heard too much about that but I’ll see if there’s anyone looking into it. The problem is guess is that such events are sporadic so little power yield?
Hi Gary, I’ve just found your channel and over the past few days I’ve been watching all your historic videos. They’re great and really helpful, so thanks for all the advice. I’ve just switched over to Octopus Energy and used your code, so you should get a credit into your account mid September. Although not related to wind power - although this video has actually helped me at work as I am working on a project to develop the next generation of power generation for the Army in the battlefield - I do have a couple of questions about solar which it would be great if you could help me with. The first is about calculating power draw. In your experience, what is the best way to calculate individual appliance (kettle, cooker, hob, washing machine etc) draw, thereby allowing you to understand your cumulative draw and knowing which appliances to use when and to separate usage so that you don’t exceed the solar inverter max output? The second is about tariffs. As I mentioned, I’ve just switched to Octupus and I plan to get a solar array in the near future. How do I set up my system to automatically follow a smart tariff so that it takes cheap energy from the grid and pay back at high export value times. Will all systems do this, or do you a specific piece of equipment etc? When combined with a diverter for water heating, can you set up the same system to prioritise export over water heating at specific times etc. in other words, how smart and configurable are these systems?
Thanks very much for your very kind words on my videos, and also for using my Octopus Energy referral code - that means a lot to me, and helps the channel grow! :-) This video I made might be useful to you for understanding power draw of various electrical appliances: th-cam.com/video/IzBHs4878BY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PZD419Jyd8-WgIaD For the questions you've raised, if your project budget allows, you might like to set up a chat session with myself, where we can look through things in detail: th-cam.com/video/IzBHs4878BY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PZD419Jyd8-WgIaD
Around 20 years ago I decided to build a wind turbine. It was a fun project that I enjoyed doing but everything you said in this video turned out to be true. The turbine had a 1.5m radius and could generate 1.2kW but still it ended up more trouble than it was worth. Unless you live on top of a mountain or are able to throw a LOT of money at it don't bother. Solar is way more efficient and economical.
In Scotland, you must site a turbine at least 100m from the property boundary. Impossible in most domestic situations. I guess the noise is a factor, but more likely the hazard of flying blades should the turbine fail.
I'm getting a solar system, all eg4 products except the solar panels which I'm getting used from Santan Solar. I'm also gonna be using wind turbines though and I'm thinkin I'll use a hydrid charge controller hooked to the same battery bank as the solar charge controller, that way I can connect extra panels to that one if I need them later
I agree that wind doesn't make sense for households. But you cannot just use the average wind speed to calculate the expected power production when the wind speed is cubed. For instance if you average windspeed is 5 m/s, you'll get P = 0.68 * 1^2 * 5^3 = 85 (assuming a 1m radius). But if you got the average 5 m/s by having 2.5 m/s half the time, and 7.5 m/s the other half of the time, the calculation would be: P = (0.68 * 1^2 * 2.5^3 + 0.68 * 1^2 * 7.5^3) / 2 = 148.75. That's 75% more energy with the same average windspeed. Cubing the windspeed will make speeds above the average count much more than speeds below the average.
That’s a great point, Kent and one also raised by others. I’m thinking of making a follow-up video at some point, covering additional aspects - and I’ll make sure to include your point 👍🏻
If you ever proceed, it would be great to hear how you get on 👍🏻 Worth taking continuous wind speed measurements over a few months to a get a feel for what your generation might be…
Solar panels and inverters can have one problem and that is electrical interference noise, something that should be sorted before the equipment is imported, but unfortunately OFCOM are ignoring testing. If you have a mast for a wind turbine in your garden then it would be prudent to have an insurance policy which would have liability insurance around the £1M mark ( which is not an excessive amount ).
I found this information very useful. Kindly advice how to find appropriate complete solutions of 1kW, 2kW and 3kW hybrid system for irrigation purposes in Tanzania.
For a small 1-3kW turbines Cp is a way worse than mentioned Cp=0.4 value. Moreover Cp is a NOT constant value and depends of windspeed - with a peak around 6-8 m/s usually. I have 3 very boring videos where I use Excel to show how to estimate production in a more realistic way. It is bit old, but recently other lad have done measurement on particular windturbine model FT-2000 and values was on similar level (way >>>smaller than customers expects reading producer badge). But most critical is a place and wind. If you have "moderate wind" probably it will be too weak in practice.
@@GaryDoesSolar Click my name above (bialy100k) and select video with a Excel/wind turbine icon 27:40 (Next 36:40 have additional information regards my over -estimation of Cp!). Turn-off audio, most of Excel descriptions was done in English, as you are tech-minded you should got what is about. There are explained 2 ways of estimation: first is based on data collected on my site (15 miles of the west coast of Ireland, typical countryside, 6m pole, data collection saved every 10 mins) second is more sophisticated - it use Weibull distribution and is a less precise - but still results of both are comparable. Both estimations shows best possible production for small "2kW" turbine FT-2000L2 (this particular version is a 3.1m diameter) WITHOUT looses on electric transmission and conversion. Be very short: estimated production on my site will be in practice lower than 1475-1601kWh PA. There was test on same turbine in Polish coast site (as well available on YT) and results wont look way different. Probably some day I will do shorter version of video in English, with some conclusion/summary and other/new approach to data analyse. I do NOT publish a lot (few videos a year).
When I saw the title of this video I immediately thought “no”. I still watched the video though where you explained all the reasons why they’re just not practical on a domestic property. If you look at the planning restrictions over height, size and that there can’t be any other turbine or ASHP fitted, this rules out most decent size turbines and the tiny ones are just toys. Was amused by the Amazon listings though, against several the product details included “power source: gasoline” 🤷♂️
Small wind turbines have to turn like crazy, making horrible noise and feeling ready to explode at any moment, to generate energy. And if they run any slower due to slow wind, they basically generate nearly nothing. In addition, the high wind slow wind cycle is usually under weeks instead of days like solar, so you need much more battery. Mega wind turbine are ok-ish, for the huge number of solar panels their replace makes it worth it. But for a single house, you would prefer to install 5times the usual amount to cover your needs in winter, rather than having a wind turbine.
I am quite interested in the comparison for a vertical axis turbine. The equation and sites are useful but the vawt are better in turbulent air so potentially better for domestic installations. They also have less moving parts. There is a tesup atlas X or other their models for example. I would have been interested in the technical challenges too, the controllers required to have both? That's the info I'm struggling on
Things i never thought about ! Say already had a good solar system . What about the cheapest quality ( I know oxymoron) wind to just to give a little charging at night / cloudy days ?
Hi Gary. If I were to erect a 48v (2m dia) turbine with its own controller would it be possible to connect it directly to my existing 6kw givenergy system with 9.2 kwh battery so its output either charged the battery or exported to the grid? If I'm reading the GWA right the 10m high windspeed where I live is 9kms because in quite high up and its exposed .
You're likely to need a separate inverter, but speak to the manufacturer for guidance. Sounds like you could be in a good location for a wind turbine. Worth carrying out wind speed measurements over the winter before committing...
Far better doing this at scale, oh and applied to solar too. How to do this Octopus Tracker or Agile tariffs Messing around doing either yourself is not and can never be economic.
![[UNCUT] The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์ EP.6 (1/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m05kZ2GDKXg/mqdefault.jpg)
thank you.
after seeing over this last winter how my 1 kW wind turbine (given I've had only single 1 kW 2.5m dia unit) easily outperforms 1 kW of solar (given I have 43 kW of solar panels mounted) in about 70% of days from the 1-st of November till 28-th of February I am adding way more this year. I'll have total of 6 of them, 3 of which are toys (1x1.3 m dia, 2x1.65 m dia) and 3 are medium size (2.3, 2.5 and 3.2 m in diameter)... And unfortunately I can't stop thinking of adding something of about 5.3-6.0 meters in diameter size ))) But that would be not this year's project already.
btw, we talked about solar optimizers earlier. they arrived, are installed, and work absolutely amazing in a one sting having panels split amount absolutely various azimuths and slopes. that allowed me to achieve smoother curve during a day, having much more production during mornings and evenings, without losing anything (and actually even gaining a bit) in the midday.
and hi from Bucha, from Ukraine.
Ah yes, I remember talking with you about optimisers - great to hear it’s all working out! 😀 Thanks for sharing your experiences with trying out various wind turbines 👍🏻
What is the average wind speed in your area? during the winter
@@ruslanwel I'd say about 3.7-3.8 m/s
G'day Gary, we set up an off grid system to supply a cottage on our farm in central Victoria. solar panels lithium batteries and a 400W wind turbine on a steel pole like a flagpole so you simply remove one bolt to lower it, it's only five metres high. We also added a diesel generator linked through and ATS, it's sunny and windy at times and at night as you said. The solar alone was not quite enough the wind has complimented the system perfectly, its all housed in a separate steel shed 👍.
That's brilliant - thanks for taking the time to share! :-)
Gary does “Don’t touch with a barge pole”. Seriously, interesting and informative
Haha - love it! ❤️
And that’s great feedback to get - thank you! 🙏
Gary doesn't have wind
The answer, my friend, ain't blowin' in the wind...🎵
As a general rule for a turbine you will be looking at £4-5k per kW for something usable, each kW will generate 4x as much MWh. So a 5kW turbine will cost you £20-25k and will produce 20MWh per year. Maintenance I've seen is closer to 5% per year all in as well. Suitable for such limited situations it really isn't worth considering for 99% of people. Small scale hydro on the other hand.... now there's a topic
Thanks for sharing this extra insight! I’ll mention in the post production notes (it’ll be a pinned comment) 👍🏻
@@GaryDoesSolardepends where you are. We have had an 11kW Gaia since mid-2011 and annual output has ranged from 18,000 kWh to 28,000 kWh. You need to be in a very windy place to get 20,000 kWh from a 5kW turbine. And turbulence kills generation so sticking it on your house just won’t work. You need a lot of land with no trees or buildings
@@n111aow your figures are more accurate. We were recently quoted for a 5kw:p Ryse energy turbine on an 18m lattice in our field. Average wind speed at the location is 5.5m/s. Company said it would generate 6mw of electricity a year. Annual maintenance - inspection greasing bearings etc was €180 if you had a lattice tower rather than a pole. We were originally looking at this as an island hybrid system with a 6kw solar array. Have decided to just go with the solar for now - 11kw and monitor our consumption needs over a couple of years. Big grants for solar and home insulation here- no support for turbine installs
@@adzy166 thanks. I didn’t mention maintenance which is around £700 pa average. But that doesn’t include the new blade we just had fitted (about £17k) or the under warranty blade after first year or under warranty new nacelle after 4 years (we had to pay about £2k labour for that. Total generation after 13 years has been 292,000 kWh
Thanks for this Gary. I was thinking, if you did actually get 131 watts average all year round, that’s roughly equivalent to what a household freezer uses. So, assuming 1100 kWh per year, and 30c per kWh that costs 330 euro per year. My freezer is usually full of stuff for months. I think there’s an argument for a smaller more efficient freezer. Same goes for all devices in the house.
Always good to see someone, who takes a proper and knowledgable look at "domestic wind power". There are far too many channels out there, that are trying to grab attention by hyping this as the "next big thing" after solar, despite all the glaring disadvantages.
Thanks Bert 😀🙏
@bertramdieterich6261 Right? I'm tired of all those stupid thumbnails with a big random number in them, like "740% wind power?!?!?!" Useless clickbait.
It will never work, not even in ideal conditions. You're better off burning sea water.
Thank you. I have been charmed and fascinated by wind turbines for decades. Really! I had a 3Kw solar array on my home in So, California for 20 years. Best thing I ever did! Saved me tons in electricity cost. I kept my hot tub on 24/7/365 and paid about $35/mo for electricity for a 1,100 sq ft home, and my AC/heat was ON and I was COMFY. I'm disappointed, but you may have just convinced to give up on my long term DREAM to have a wind turbine. I didn't even care if it didn't perform spectacularly. Here in N. Portugal the sun is more like in Portland or Seattle; winters are GREY!!!! BUT I have few (aka NO ) surrouding buildings near me, and my neighbors are low profile. Result of your video: I'll put solar (AGAIN) but will take my time and later add a small wind turbine as a hobbyist. My bet is that it performs better than expected. Because just a couple miles from the Atlantic with little to now trees and buildings AND with howling winds in cold grey winter; it's gotta be almost as good as solar. Probably better on a significant number of grey, stormy, rainy, WINDY days.
This is great - thank you for sharing 😀
Good video Gary. I've worked in offshore wind in the UK for over 5 years. I don't anybody within the industry who has a residential wind turbine.
That says a lot, Spike Monster!! 👍🏻
French Island off the Victorian coast is entirely off grid. Plenty of homes and businesses use a combination of wind and solar there, and some have backup diesel generators too.
@@davidunwin7868 I know French Island and was also just browsing the Wind Atlas - it's all in red down there. Having visited the area for 46 years off and on, can confirm it's windy as hell.
Great video Gary, thanks for the shout out!
Thanks Rosie! 😀😀😀
Rosie FTW! ❤
@@MC-bm3cy
What does FTW mean?
For The Win, but back in the day, it used to mean F*** The World
@@ajarivas72
My brother in law has an off grid vehicle and farm equipment workshop in rural Ireland. He built himself a wind turbine mounted on a telegraph pole, the blades are around 1.6m in length. The turbine compresses air into a large cylinder for use inflating tyres, spraying paint and cleaning equipment. He's ever so proud of it. For nearly everything else he has a diesel generator which runs heavy equipment and also charges some old discarded car batteries to run his lighting. For heating he still visits the bog each year to cut turf.
That is just brilliant! 😀
Why no solar panels? Ireland is not cloudy all of the time
@@rogerphelps9939 he's 66, dyslexic, lives alone, he understands machinery, enjoys working with it, probably only charges about minimum wage for his services, so doesn't have a great deal of spare cash. What he has works for him.
Most turbines deliver on average about 500w per m2, not 800w like advertised. In belgium there are about 2000 h full speed wind per annum, on the see about double the amount. 2000h x 500w = 1000 kWh/y. This is equivalent to roughly 3 solar panels. Given the high cost of order 10k all in for a turbine, this is several times a lower ROI. Not an option currently. Moreover, any government keeps close control over this type of generation, it is too lucrative on large scale, that is why usa forbids foreign investorcompanies. Thanks gary, nice work to inform people.
Cheers! And thanks for sharing this insight 😀👍🏻
15 plus years ago B&Q decided to sell wind turbines. They cost around £1,000 including installation. We bought one, subject to the results of a survey.
That was very informative. The surveyer told us he had to decline over 90% due to location. Basically, if you have no trees or buildings for a mile radius around the turbine, you are OK. (Think Farm). Practically anything else, you are wasting your money. And that did not even take into account the noise factor, as you mentioned.
There are some new developments being worked on, specifically designed for the urban environment, where wind enters from the bottom of a pipe, from any direction, and drives a vertically mounted turbine. Not in production yet, and again, would probably only be useful in a pretty windy area.
With the drop in the cost of solar PV, it would probably be an expensive toy if you bought one!
Ah, I remember hearing about the particular product!
It's only expensive if you have other people install it for you, my wind turbines work very well, again not better than solar, but together you notice the difference, I'm in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, no power or water right now for 4 days...it's raining today, great day for that wind turbine to help out solar 😂.
Won't work. Generated power is proportional to the area intercepted by the turbine. A pipe would be hopeless
Well presented! I did the math and concluded there is just no way to argue with physics. I've always had a tough time to explain this so I'll be linking this video in the future. Wind power makes a lot of sense when you install them on a utility scale
Thanks for doing this - very much appreciated! 😀🙏
Nice video. I remember during David Cameron’s “green phase” when he was pictured riding his bike to work, sledging in the Artic with huskies etc, he had a wind turbine fixed to his family home in Wandsworth. I believe it was a “Windsave” model which at the time was being sold in B&Q. Needless to say the Windsave was not stocked by B&Q for long and Cameron is rumoured to have found that the inverter for the wind turbine used more electricity than the turbine generated, suffice to say it was taken down. A turbine is only likely to be suitable if you live in the country in a windy area where you can erect one of sufficient size and height. If you want to invest in wind power then something like an investment in Ripple wind farm or a financial investment in something like Greencoat Wind Investment Trust is likely to be a better bet.
Haha - no wonder Cameron later turned against renewables (“the green crap”) !!
Agreed, there will hopefully be great opportunities to invest in large-scale wind farms going forward, building on what Ripple has done 👍🏻
Ah! you mean his Hug a Husky phase. Didn't know he'd put a turbine up, anything for a bit of good PR I guess. I remember going into a B&Q with my dad for something or other and them having a small wind turbine and solar panel on display in the glass entrance foyer with a salesman handing out brochures in what I took to be a concessionary arrangement. My dad was quite interested and had a chat with me once we got in the store proper out of earshot of the salesman, I think he'd of ordered one there and then if I'd said I thought it worthwhile, so I did a quick bit of mental arithmetic on how many years to pay for itself at its claimed rated output and doubling that in the hope of getting something vaguely approximate of the best possible pay back time and doubled that to what I would have hoped would be the worse, didn't seem great to me compared to interest from leaving the money in the bank and I was concerned about noise, but I know from a little subsequent research that even that would have been hopelessly optimistic. The house was at the end of a cul-de-sac and on windy day the wind would whip down the road channeled by the houses and through the gap between his and a neighbours, creating a great deal of turbulence with the direction constantly flipping against the prevailing wind when it gusts, so it wouldn't have made a good location either, probably broken it in fact. A small turbine might make some sense to charge a 12 volt battery in a remote off-grid location, for everything else very large scale seems vital.
15 minutes of my time well invested. I’ve often thought of a wind turbine as the locals where I live call it “windy hill”. Shelving that thought is Gary’s considered conclusion. Thank you.
Cheers Paul. Yeah, it's very hard to make a financial business case for small wind turbines :-/
Well, I will not be getting a wind turbine!
Thanks Gary. Very interesting.
Cheers. And yeah, I wanted to make this video so that people didn’t fall into the marketing trap, unnecessarily.
@@GaryDoesSolar
I fell in the marketing of wind turbines.
My 400 watts solar panel generates on average 150 watts per day.
My 400 watts wind turbine generates on average 20 watts per day.
@@ajarivas72 Sorry to hear that your turbine is not performing as well as the marketing material suggested!
I just went with Ripple for wind power in addition to my PV.
Same, though the return on Kirk Hill is in the pennies so far...it would be nice to be 1-1 like with PV...
A great opportunity for people to have a direct involvement with wind generation without having to have their own equipment 👍🏻 Financial return potentially limited though, depending on the deal…
Thanks for an informative review. I think I would put PV on our North facing roof before a wind turbine
It certainly removes all the headaches!
Woow! Gary, thanks for cooling my head on this. Much appreciated. Best regards.
You’re most welcome 🙏
Another consideration is to make sure the install doesn't cast a shadow on your, or your neighbors, solar panels. It doesn't take much shadow area, to significantly reduce the output of a solar array. If you have a farm or a ranch, turbines are an ideal complement to a photovoltaic (solar) system, but, they're a bit of a "no go" in residential areas. It's more than possible, that the overall reduction of output from the shadow cast on adjacent solar panels can be greater than what the turbine itself can produce, causing an overall reduction, rather than increase in renewable energy in that immediate area.
Great points 👍🏻
30 years ago, when I was first investigating Wind, Solar, and Micro Hydro, there was a much more compelling argument to a combined system. Solar was massively more expensive than it is now, and the relative cost of Inverters and Storage was much higher. In order to get good use out of all that expensive equipment, the incremental cost of Wind was minor. Now with the low price of Solar, High Frequency Inverters and Lithium Batteries... Adding extra capacity with extra Solar Panels is way cheaper than a combined system. If you have flowing water on your property though, nothing beats Micro Hydro still.
I love it that technology just gets better and cheaper all the time, enabling business cases that were perhaps not viable before…
Beautifully and clearly reasoned. Thank you.
I endorse your plug for Engineering with Rosie.
Cheers Mark - I’m humbled! And yeah, Rosie’s work is brilliant! 😀👍🏻
@@GaryDoesSolar Illinois EnergyProf is also well worth a view. It is a wider scope with more of a emphasis on big grid power but I found it very interesting and informative.
www.youtube.com/@illinoisenergyprof6878/videos
Example of one that might be of interest is "How Solar Cells Work" th-cam.com/video/OKfeIistD2A/w-d-xo.html
Squeaky pen is a feature!
Gary Does Wind Too!
Great video as always Gary
Cheers - yeah, maybe I should start a few more “Gary Does …” channels. I may need to clone myself 🤣
Great video. Especially the explanation of the cubing effect. Some info that may help others:I installed two small turbines 3 years ago. Both 2.2m diameter on 8.5m guyed poles. When solar dies off from Nov through Feb , wind takes over. Never a day then when my batteries aren't charged up. (10kwh lead acid). Great resilience for power cuts. Turbines were £600 each but poles, concrete, guys, batteries and control circuits were another £2000. So payoff period is long/never. But the resilience is very reassuring living out in the sticks. The turbines are ista i1500 3 blade 24v. Probably the only good but cheap turbines out there. Worth mentioning that horizontal 3 blade is the only sensible design. The rest are daft gimmicks. Rosie's Engineering channel describes why.
Thanks for sharing this insight. Great points 👍🏻
Clearly you live on the top of a hill or on the coast where there are high mean wind speeds If not you are probably trying to drum up business for one of these domestic wind turbine companies
Roger, how can you possibly conclude that?? No company/product names were even mentioned…
@@rogerphelps9939 I am in open countryside. Quite windy from Mid Oct through Feb/March. Nope, not trying to drum up business for any particular vendor. Just trying to give a realistic impression from what to expect. I did say that the payback is very long or even never at this scale, but gives great resilience for power cuts. No good typically, for urban areas though. I also said that the other costs for dumploads, masts, controllers were several times higher than the cost of the turbine itself. Very interesting "hobby" too, if you're interested in this kind of thing. Gary's very clear explanation of the cubing effect really plays out. When wind is at 5-10mph gusting to 15-20mph, my power outputs from both turbines zooms up and down between 40-50watts and 800-1500watts in just a few seconds. Does this all day in winter. So you need to have good cabling and dumploads that can absorb peaks. I have no allegiance to any vendor. In fact I'm looking to upgrade on of my 2.2m diameter turbines for a 3.8m turbine which is around £1200. ( and demonstrating my impartiality i'm not mentioning any vendor names either )
A fantastic overview of wind turbines.
Factual, informative and intriguing!
Interesting, was think of a wind turbine that n a farm in westmeath
Cheers David 😀 great to hear you found it informative
Loved your video. Very informative. In a nutshell, with current technology and financials, you are saying that wind is not worth it for a home installation. Wind on an industrial scale, well that is something else. Loved the way you explained the formulas. I also liked other video you put up in the past as well. Thanks. Cheers.
Thanks - that's great feedback :-)
I'm in Australia. We have had a few weeks of hectic winds. I have always been curious about wind turbines. Honestly, that global wind map thing settled the whole discussion in my head. I'd be looking at 3k/h winds at 10m high. I don't even want to go that high. For the same cost I could add more solar and be better off. But honestly, I think the best solution for my set up is more battery capacity. Displacing the energy I already produce seems like the best way to reduce my costs. I'll probably wait 5-10 years before upgrading my Powerwall 2 to a 3 phase compatible battery and will get aim for over 30kWh capacity. The wait is partly for technology to advance and partly for my pockets to get some time to fill :p
Thanks for sharing this insight - I think it will help others who might be in a similar position...
Thank you for some concise and clear information. I have a property in Spain which I'm trying to make self sufficient via solar/wind etc with battery storage. The property ticks most boxes. It's 300m elevation up a 'mountain' with clear areas all round including to the Med about 2/3 miles away.
Cheers for the great feedback. And yeah, it sounds like you’re in a very good location to capture useful wind energy! 👍🏻
I have 2 wind turbines, I'm not happy with my purchase...I'm SUPER HAPPY with my purchase 😂, I'm in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, we just got hit by tropical storm Ernesto, my area has no power and water right now as I comment, it's day 4 , no power, no water, on rainy days solar is weak, but complemented by wind to compensate. I left up my small wind turbine up during the storm, it generated enough power at night to keep my fridge running for a couple of hours, agreed that it's not better than solar, but it's that extra hand picking you up when in need...my bigger turbine is a tilt down design I put together for storms and hurricanes.
That’s great! Thanks for sharing your experience 😀👍🏻
Wepa!
@CptFugu I got a video up bringing down the wind turbine before Ernesto hit....Wepa! 😆
@@MosaicHomestead Lo vi. Muy interesante. Saludos desde Ponce!
@CptFugu MI turbine trabaja muy bien, El esta probando turbinas baratas, Y no la esta probando a la altura correctas, y Los cotroladoras de cargas que esta usando no son Las mejores, cuando mis molinos estan corriendo, y produciendo demas, la cargo exsesiva es transferida a resistores que se ponen Caliente ...mis resistores son fuertes, tiene que ver carga fuerte para calentar, Los molinos son para asistir Las placas en dias de lluvia, y trabaja muy bien.
Back in the '80s I used to work at Exxon Chemical Research, just down the A34 from you in Milton Hill.
Nice vid but I concluded a long time ago that domestic scale wind power would never fly.
Yeah, I should probably have consulted with you first 😀 👍🏻
Thanks Gary, another extremely informative video. Neighbours and 'higher management' would make a turbine difficult for me so I will continue to work on the 'additional solar' option. Only one issue remains to be solved and its not my Neighbours!!!
Hi Nigel, yeah, solar definitely the safer option. Good luck resolving that issue! 👍🏻 Thanks for the great feedback!
I fitted a wind turbine last year supposedly rated 2,000W but I knew that due to its swept area it could only ever generate 200W in a gale and it does do that but for the rest of the time it chunters along at less than 20W so is fine for keeping a charge on the batteries but not much good for energy production. Now if I lived in the outer Hebrides it would be a whole different ball game as the wind there is consistently available and powerful enough to make these units sensible.
Yeah, I think that's the key for home wind turbines - an almost constant steady, clean wind. And the outer islands of Scotland are a great place to get such...
I own a wind turbine,
firstly location, location and location,
i live in a rural area, with a Wind turbine with a wind valley off the sea, in orkney which is known for being windy.
at a cost of 30,000, you have to add on maintaining it, roughly £1,000 a year, include insurance, (if built on Garden ground you can add it to the house insurance,
Now it produces 18,000 kwh, to maximise your return, you need to use as much of the energy as you can, best option is to install a renewable heating system , and batteries, and own an EV car,
however check your wind speeds in your area, and do experiments on the impact of buildings around you
its a large purchase and can save you money
but so can a solar panel array and batteries
with a lesser cost outlay
Hi Rob, thanks for sharing this - I'll follow up with your emails...
I did! I did! I liked it! :) So glad you mentioned noise! Some of these turbines are like a Disney swordfight on steroids!! However, there is a UK made turbine that I used for over 12 years on my boat. Its designed and certified for urban use. Not an advert since I have no connection with the company but the D400 from Eclectic Energy is robust and generates pretty efficiently. However, I considered it a 'background benefit' on the boat and would not consider it unless I lived in a particularly windy place (thinking Bahamas in the trade winds - dream on). In a 20kt trade wind t would run the fridge and freezer for 24hours as well as other modest draws (battery buffered) like boiling a kettle and running computers.
I love this comment ❤️
Thankyou Gary. Im watching from Australia (Sydney) where ofcourse solar is the best source of energy. But I was curious about supplementing it with wind and the algorithm brought me to your very informative video. I live coastal and get a very reliable sea breeze, but also that means very intense during storms and sudden wind changes are common. I nerdily and actually enjoyed the mathematics section. With so much lithium in the Outback, and improvements to battery technology. Im looking forward to the 'supplementary' backup being storage, not just more generation.
Will make sure to watch the rest of your videos :)
Thanks for taking the time to share this! I’ll keep making videos for you 😀👍🏻
Gary does sobering reality check.
Love it! ❤️
I'd looked at them in our previous house and considered it uninvestable.
Two years ago we moved to the West country and we have a wind farm (with nine large units) about 1.5 miles from us. The owner of the wind farm credits our Octopus Energy account with about £140 a year for the inconvenience. It's a good deal for us as the turbines are hidden behind a bank of trees and we get no wind noise whatsoever from them. As a retired engineer, the majesty of them, their grace and the design appeals (how sad am I?) , as does the green credentials. It's about the only wind turbine investment worth having for us, as it simply pays out!
We have a field adjacent to our garden and, in theory, we could put a turbine there on a mast. I considered it for about one and a half minutes and decided against the idea. I didn't bother with the complicated equations (although your explanation and worked examples are very useful to illustrate the viability): Although, in theory, we could capitalise on the same wind as the wind farm, trees adjacent to the field would kill the production and.... I'd rather see the trees and keep £20K+ in our bank account!
Ian, this is great! Thanks for sharing! Similar to Octopus Energy sharing benefits of their wind turbines with local residents! ❤️
I installed a small 500 W wind turbine on a 60 foot pole in an area that gets decent wind. I had it up for many many years and if you add it up , all of its energy production versus how much money I spent installing it, it would fall into the category of Useless. You could buy some used solar panels and toss them in the dirt and get better production. Other than commercial scale they are rarely a worthy investment. Extreme latitudes could definitely make a better argument though.
Thanks for sharing this, Bob 😀👍🏻
You've shown my suspicions were right these things are not practical. Glad I didn't go down this road
Glad the video was helpful to you 👍🏻
I reckon after solar the only one that makes sense for homes is water turbines if you have the requites stream. Years ago 1980s I did some work for a customer who'd converted an old water mill into a residence. Even then I thought you know what you could concievebaly go off grid with a water turbine replacing the old mill stones. Otherwise PV is the only game in town for most.
👍🏻
Thank you for an excellent video; I could not have done better (ex teacher, OCD)
Hi Geoff, thanks for your incredibly positive feedback. Wow - that’s made my day! 🙏
Cousin installed a windmill, with all the required documentation, only to have to remove it later in the piece because of complaints from neighbours, re noise pollution and when it rained locals complained of shadowing on their tvs. Semi rural area as well!
Crikey!
Looked into wind turbines. Not with an unrealistic view, I only wanted to cover the overnight house load of 50 to 100watts (possibly a little more but not including heating use). There are some units but the cost and potential noise has put me off.
But I have a river running past the house and this has a better potential. The only issue is a suitable device which can cope with the rise and fall of the water height and the speed changes. A 200watt waterwheel would be magic if I could get one
Definitely worth looking into! 👍🏻
Usually better to just purchase more PV or batteries. Your PV will be under warranty for 20+ years, people have to go up and fix their turbines because of moving parts
Yeah, I would agree 👍🏻
I think it’s more interesting to look for generation that can be applied in built-up areas so winter turbines that are horizontal unlikely to be any use because the windows of the variety it’s not a clean straight wind but there are several designs which capture the win from all directions through Luvvers and so on and direct them through through vertical-axis turbines that scavenge run lower speeds but can overtime do very well in terms of charging batteries for our use domestically
The problem with low speeds is that there’s no energy there (cube law works against you).
Excellent.. thoroughly researched as ever.
Cheers Mick - that’s great feedback 😀👍🏻
Maybe you should rename the channel Gary Loves Solar you were quite evangelistic at the end. Very useful video to show if you don’t have a couple of acres, wind is a no go. Did see a hillside property with a stream that had a water turbine micro generator did as much a a 6kW solar system.
Yeah, you’re not wrong about the name of the channel - I’ll be talking about heat pumps before long too!
I've done some measurements in the garden, and in one spot, averaged for a month, at only 2m height, I get a windspeed of 3.99M/s. Using the Britwind r9000 blade radius of 2.75 metres, even at the ground I'd get 2.8 MWh a year. Using Wind Atlas at the same location, at 10m I'd get 7MWh. So agreed, it would be nuts to add one to your house in a housing estate in slough, but for us hillside country dwellers, it might be worth it. Other thing was, I was quoted £35k to supply and fit the Britwind, so assuming these numbers, and a 20-year life, this would be 25 pence per kWh (versus my about 11 pence for solar). I'd like to see Wind Atlas data at 16 and 20 metres, as those are the mast heights of small commercial turbines.
Yeah, it's just really hard to make the business case, eh? Even for a great wind location! That said, I've heard from a few people who live on the Orkney Islands north of Scotland who achieve a great ROI on home wind power.
Love your work 😊
Cheers Stephen! I really enjoyed researching this one! 😀
I really would love wind turbines to be worth it for domestic property especially for winter generation. But as you’ve alluded to, the laws of physics point towards bigger = better! They simply don’t scale down the same way that Solar does.
That said, if you could somehow magic up a wind turbine for £200 (all in) that was actually good….. it might be worth a punt! And I’m sure planning permission has exemptions for temporary structures,….. popup wind turbines spring to mind.
Hi Anthony, worth checking out Everything Electric channel as I think they were trying out a popup turbine - it certainly seemed to be able to put some decent charge into a portable battery unit! I don't think they showed detailed numbers though...!
@@GaryDoesSolar yes I’ve saw the episode. It’s definitely a “bit rough around the edges”. But that said, I wish them the best of fortunes. I’m sure future iterations of the design will become better by every measure. I’d be happy to offer my access to windier locations to help test it out!
Thank you! You've definitely convinced not to go this route. Even though we live on a hill near the sea with average wind speeds of 7m/sec, it's simply not worth it. The technology is not reliable, robust, or affordable enough to embark on this route.
Happy to help - thanks for the feedback!
Thanks Gary its now obvious that wind belongs to large scale. I follow Rosie but missed that video.
Cheers Mark. Yeah, shame, but physics is what it is, I guess…
Yeah, get your wind power from the grid was the conclusion I reached! Unless maybe you are out in the middle of nowhere.
Agreed 👍🏻
The Global Wind Atlas site sounds interesting. But as you say later, turbulence is a huge factor as well as wind speed. I wonder if people could set up wifi-connected anemometers to get metrics for a couple years first before deciding to invest.
Carrying out detailed continuous wind measurements for several months (ideally a whole year) is a great idea 👍🏻 And not too expensive to do either….
First step if you think about this check the average wind speed in your area(less than 2m/s in my case) Looking at that map it turns out that most urban areas are located in the less windy zones.
Yeah, and that is certainly a huge nail in the coffin for small wind turbines in those locations!
For me the planning permission hurdle puts me off a wind turbine
Yeah, and even though it’s possible to avoid in certain countries (like the UK) the conditions are heavy…
Its so very nice boss, but we hàve the issue of climate not to disregards, aldo there iaremew designs of wind turbines that can stand strong flow of winds like in during typhon season but it cost too much, but typhon just in a while compare to power to generate in summer.
Cheers, and yeah - it’s hard for any wind turbine design to usefully generate efficiently in low wind conditions yet survive in very high wind conditions, such is the variability of the climate today…
Excellent info
thx
You’re most welcome! Thanks for letting me know 😀👍🏻
Great Video Gary, Opened my eyes to having a Wind Turbine, thanks.
My pleasure, Ian - thanks for watching 👍🏻
Thanks Gary, interesting video but evidently not an option for most.
Thanks for the kind words about the video 🙏 It’s a shame really, as in theory, it feels right 🤷♂️
Rooftop PV panels can shade hot rooftops also.
I like the idea, Hahaha 😊
Detailed analysis is very useful.
Broader comments help framing the problem. 😊
I hope I am helping. 😊
You are.
I’m still optimistic for ridgeblade style turbines… in the right place at any rate.
I’ll check them out 👍🏻
@@GaryDoesSolar unfortunately they seem to be not produced… keep getting effectively null responses.
And it’s a real shame, my parents house faces across the sea directly at the prevailing wind, with a roof pitch that would be *ideal* for ridgeblade.
Looks like the Gary Does Wind channel is a non starter then 😮
That made me laugh 🤣
Great video. Solar power in the UK with it's heavy cloud cover does not make sense.
Cheers Steve. Now, I should say that since my solar panels were installed in the UK, I've not had any electricity bills since (and they were nearly £3K/year before...)
Short answer, no, long answer, watch the video 😁
😀👍🏻
The Problem of Solar is winter production, especially in offgrid situations. If you would size your solar system to produce enough in winter, you would need at least 4 times (sometimes 10 times) as much solar as you would need for a summer day. That increases the average cost of power by around 5 times. From cheap 8 Cents to 40 cents per kWh (up to 80 cents per kWh). If you compare it with that, you are that worse off with a wind turbine (given you are in a somewhat suitable location).
Agreed
Fully agree. Home solar is a great idea. Home batteries are technically good, but provide at best a very mediocre financial return on investment compared to alternatives in most cases. Home wind turbines are a very, very bad idea in almost all cases due to the reasons you mentioned and more (expensive, low energy harvest, noise, vibration, eyesore, rotating shadows, maintenance, planning permissions, etc.).
With wind turbines, a good rule of thumb is to either place a ginormous wind turbine in areas with lots wind or not do it at all.
Thanks Frank - I agree 👍🏻
What I thought about was getting an old wind borehole pump. Shouldn't be too pricey as most are not used any longer. Then connecting it to a generator. It could be a less expensive than buying a specifically built wind turbine and be bigger with a solid stand structure.
Let me know if you proceed… 👍🏻
alternatively invest in a listed wind generation business…some listed on the LSE pay > 7%
Sounds like a good option 👍🏻
i had planned to add a wind turbine cos our south facing garden faces open farm fields.... that was till the council decided to build 160 houses on those fields!
Dammit! A great plan otherwise!! 👍🏻
@@GaryDoesSolar i fear alot of people be in the same position going by the new governments plans to relax planning restrictions. a solar farm is been built closeby, wish the had built it in the fields at back of me instead of housing :)
I didn't watch the video, but I'm not confident about doubling. A wind turbine does sound intriguing to me, though. A wind turbine can work day or night, but wind typically blows more forcefully at night, so having both would be very complimentary. I currently have solar panels, but my solar installer told me that Consumers Energy doesn't allow overcapacity. They had to analyze my bill to make sure I didn't go past 96% or something like that. I don't remember the exact percentage. Overall, I don't regret my decision.
Good decision going with solar panels. Well worth watching the video though. Residential areas not great for wind turbines…
Great video Gary 👍
Thanks Jim! 😀👍🏻
Great Video Gary ~ Many thanks KR AndyT(Somerset)
Cheers for the great feedback, Andy! 🙏
...Micro-pebble... bed nuclear... reactor... instead of... wind turbine... Got it! Thanks!
… or maybe just… solar ☀️ 👍🏻
Great video, very interesting. I remember the Real Life Architect looked at wind turbines attached to the side of properties a while back and with the constant vibrations there was a structural impact that negated any profit. The only possible exception was the RidgeBlade design but at the time that was only in development.
RidgeBlade has some issues. It cannot turn with the wind so you need to get lucky with the wind direction, it is (relativly) low so cannot get high wind speed although the roof pushing air up helps a bit and any noise would couple directly into the house far worse than any turbine. The real show stopper problem though is likely to be planning permission because "Any enlargement, improvement, or alteration to a house must not exceed the height of the highest part of the roof of the existing house. If it does, an application for planning permission will be required". Unless you have a chimney like in their front page photo this might be a big problem.
@@mtpaley1 Very good points, this technology always appears to be in development and from memory the company has moved its head office between various countries. I can’t see any wind technology working in the domestic environment in my opinion unless the property has plenty of land and no neighbours!
Thanks, and I’m going to look into the ridge design for a potential follow up video as several people have mentioned 👍🏻
Love the video, it was great.
One note, though - that's a Greek Eta, not an n!
Yeah, apologies for this, Greg - I was trying to make the video more accessible, but actually I think people would have been happy learning some mathematical concepts 👍🏻
Thanks for your kind words about the video 😀
Its all about location and the amount of wind. If you are living in an urban area? Forget it. If you are living on a rural property in Saskatchewan? Great investment. I have two 2kw IstaBreeze on my system, as well as just shy of 12 kw of solar, and a 30kw battery. Im completely offgrid here. I have a diesel generator for bankup but I have only used it twice to charge the batteries. The wind is generally putting out 800-1200 watts per unit in a 20 mph breeze, which as anyone on the prairies will attest is basically the norm. Its not uncommon for me to wake up to full batteries with the wind going strong all night.
That’s great to hear, Dave - thanks for sharing. And just goes to show that with the right location, wind generation can be very effective! 😀👍🏻
Is this equation accounting for the savings on drawing grid power? The price goes up with inflation over time, and if you’re on wholesale tariffs, the dinner time prices are frequently great value to export.
@@whophd I have no grid here. They wanted almost $30k to pull wire into my property. I went off grid for less.
The UK is a windy country, but what your video demonstrates with some useful formulas is that the turbine has to be very large and very high up. Not something feasible in a domestic location. So, while solar is suitable for micro generation, wind isn’t and should be left to the big boys!
I totally agree, James - although there are a few exceptions (Orkney, for example) 👍🏻
@@GaryDoesSolar, as long as you had a good size plot of land to negate the turbine noise issue.
Rosie rocks!
She does! ❤️
I've been curious about wind for a while, so thanks for doing the research and mental legwork for this well researched and science-based video.
However, for a while, I have been wondering about a radically different approach...
Have you ever experienced slamming doors on windy days when doors and windows are open on both sides of the house? The house is effectively acting as a wind break and channeling a flow of air through the house, which is what slams the doors. So could a suitably constructed house harness this effect to generate electricity? 🤔
Cheers Andrew - great feedback to receive! Now, on your radical approach, I’ve not heard too much about that but I’ll see if there’s anyone looking into it. The problem is guess is that such events are sporadic so little power yield?
Hi Gary,
I’ve just found your channel and over the past few days I’ve been watching all your historic videos. They’re great and really helpful, so thanks for all the advice.
I’ve just switched over to Octopus Energy and used your code, so you should get a credit into your account mid September.
Although not related to wind power - although this video has actually helped me at work as I am working on a project to develop the next generation of power generation for the Army in the battlefield - I do have a couple of questions about solar which it would be great if you could help me with.
The first is about calculating power draw. In your experience, what is the best way to calculate individual appliance (kettle, cooker, hob, washing machine etc) draw, thereby allowing you to understand your cumulative draw and knowing which appliances to use when and to separate usage so that you don’t exceed the solar inverter max output?
The second is about tariffs. As I mentioned, I’ve just switched to Octupus and I plan to get a solar array in the near future. How do I set up my system to automatically follow a smart tariff so that it takes cheap energy from the grid and pay back at high export value times. Will all systems do this, or do you a specific piece of equipment etc? When combined with a diverter for water heating, can you set up the same system to prioritise export over water heating at specific times etc. in other words, how smart and configurable are these systems?
Thanks very much for your very kind words on my videos, and also for using my Octopus Energy referral code - that means a lot to me, and helps the channel grow! :-)
This video I made might be useful to you for understanding power draw of various electrical appliances: th-cam.com/video/IzBHs4878BY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PZD419Jyd8-WgIaD
For the questions you've raised, if your project budget allows, you might like to set up a chat session with myself, where we can look through things in detail: th-cam.com/video/IzBHs4878BY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PZD419Jyd8-WgIaD
Rutland FM1803-2; that's what l'm going for in 48v. On a Clarke mast ZT-11meter on a 13' lorry roof.
👍🏻
Around 20 years ago I decided to build a wind turbine. It was a fun project that I enjoyed doing but everything you said in this video turned out to be true. The turbine had a 1.5m radius and could generate 1.2kW but still it ended up more trouble than it was worth. Unless you live on top of a mountain or are able to throw a LOT of money at it don't bother. Solar is way more efficient and economical.
Agreed - and thanks for sharing your experience 😀👍🏻
Shakes the heck out of gable end of house. Also check out Betz law.
I can imagine! 😳
In Scotland, you must site a turbine at least 100m from the property boundary.
Impossible in most domestic situations.
I guess the noise is a factor, but more likely the hazard of flying blades should the turbine fail.
Yeah, I was thinking noise when I first read the 100m restriction, but hey, who knows?! :-)
Ridgeline could be an answer if they ever get their act together.
I’ll be taking a look at that in a possible follow-up video 👍🏻
I'm getting a solar system, all eg4 products except the solar panels which I'm getting used from Santan Solar. I'm also gonna be using wind turbines though and I'm thinkin I'll use a hydrid charge controller hooked to the same battery bank as the solar charge controller, that way I can connect extra panels to that one if I need them later
I'd love to hear how you get on with your wind installation! Feel free to email me@GaryDoesSolar.com - thanks!
@GaryDoesSolar thanks buddy, this is in my top 2 or 3 favorite turbine videos thank you I'll do that! Ur the man!!
@@RedbarFan66 That's very kind of you to day - thank you! 😃
I agree that wind doesn't make sense for households. But you cannot just use the average wind speed to calculate the expected power production when the wind speed is cubed.
For instance if you average windspeed is 5 m/s, you'll get P = 0.68 * 1^2 * 5^3 = 85 (assuming a 1m radius). But if you got the average 5 m/s by having 2.5 m/s half the time, and 7.5 m/s the other half of the time, the calculation would be: P = (0.68 * 1^2 * 2.5^3 + 0.68 * 1^2 * 7.5^3) / 2 = 148.75. That's 75% more energy with the same average windspeed. Cubing the windspeed will make speeds above the average count much more than speeds below the average.
That’s a great point, Kent and one also raised by others. I’m thinking of making a follow-up video at some point, covering additional aspects - and I’ll make sure to include your point 👍🏻
I nearly bought one and still might as side of my house is like a wind tunnel work with the solar panels
If you ever proceed, it would be great to hear how you get on 👍🏻 Worth taking continuous wind speed measurements over a few months to a get a feel for what your generation might be…
Solar panels and inverters can have one problem and that is electrical interference noise, something that should be sorted before the equipment is imported, but unfortunately OFCOM are ignoring testing.
If you have a mast for a wind turbine in your garden then it would be prudent to have an insurance policy which would have liability insurance around the £1M mark ( which is not an excessive amount ).
If they're permitted development your normal house insurance should provide all the necessary cover.
Great points!
No turbine for me then. What about the turbines that fit along the apex of a roof, I wonder are they any better or just a waste of money too.
I’m going to look into them as part of a potential follow-up video… 👍🏻
I found this information very useful. Kindly advice how to find appropriate complete solutions of 1kW, 2kW and 3kW hybrid system for irrigation purposes in Tanzania.
Thanks Ricky. Now, for solutions where you live, you're best to speak a local installer there as there are a lot of factors to consider...
We're probably leaving something significant on the table if we aren't using any structures outside the circle to increase wind speeds.
Hi Eric, sounds interesting - could you elaborate please?
For a small 1-3kW turbines Cp is a way worse than mentioned Cp=0.4 value. Moreover Cp is a NOT constant value and depends of windspeed - with a peak around 6-8 m/s usually. I have 3 very boring videos where I use Excel to show how to estimate production in a more realistic way. It is bit old, but recently other lad have done measurement on particular windturbine model FT-2000 and values was on similar level (way >>>smaller than customers expects reading producer badge). But most critical is a place and wind. If you have "moderate wind" probably it will be too weak in practice.
Thanks for sharing this. Please feel free to email me@GaryDoesSolar.com as I’m considering a follow up video 👍🏻
@@GaryDoesSolar Click my name above (bialy100k) and select video with a Excel/wind turbine icon 27:40 (Next 36:40 have additional information regards my over -estimation of Cp!). Turn-off audio, most of Excel descriptions was done in English, as you are tech-minded you should got what is about. There are explained 2 ways of estimation: first is based on data collected on my site (15 miles of the west coast of Ireland, typical countryside, 6m pole, data collection saved every 10 mins) second is more sophisticated - it use Weibull distribution and is a less precise - but still results of both are comparable. Both estimations shows best possible production for small "2kW" turbine FT-2000L2 (this particular version is a 3.1m diameter) WITHOUT looses on electric transmission and conversion. Be very short: estimated production on my site will be in practice lower than 1475-1601kWh PA. There was test on same turbine in Polish coast site (as well available on YT) and results wont look way different. Probably some day I will do shorter version of video in English, with some conclusion/summary and other/new approach to data analyse. I do NOT publish a lot (few videos a year).
This was really good - very clear for HAWTs. How do you adjust the formula for VAWTs and Squirrel Cages?
Haha - now there’s a thought!!! ❤️
When I saw the title of this video I immediately thought “no”. I still watched the video though where you explained all the reasons why they’re just not practical on a domestic property. If you look at the planning restrictions over height, size and that there can’t be any other turbine or ASHP fitted, this rules out most decent size turbines and the tiny ones are just toys.
Was amused by the Amazon listings though, against several the product details included “power source: gasoline” 🤷♂️
Cheers Geoffrey 👍🏻 Yeah, so much untruthful marketing going on!!
Small wind turbines have to turn like crazy, making horrible noise and feeling ready to explode at any moment, to generate energy.
And if they run any slower due to slow wind, they basically generate nearly nothing.
In addition, the high wind slow wind cycle is usually under weeks instead of days like solar, so you need much more battery.
Mega wind turbine are ok-ish, for the huge number of solar panels their replace makes it worth it.
But for a single house, you would prefer to install 5times the usual amount to cover your needs in winter, rather than having a wind turbine.
Good points 👍🏻
I am quite interested in the comparison for a vertical axis turbine. The equation and sites are useful but the vawt are better in turbulent air so potentially better for domestic installations. They also have less moving parts. There is a tesup atlas X or other their models for example. I would have been interested in the technical challenges too, the controllers required to have both? That's the info I'm struggling on
Worth looking at more of Rosie’s engineering videos - she has one or two on VAWT 👍🏻
Things i never thought about ! Say already had a good solar system . What about the cheapest quality ( I know oxymoron) wind to just to give a little charging at night / cloudy days ?
Hi Mike, yeah, unless you're in an area with a clean, persistent wind stream, it's likely not worth it.
Hi Gary. If I were to erect a 48v (2m dia) turbine with its own controller would it be possible to connect it directly to my existing 6kw givenergy system with 9.2 kwh battery so its output either charged the battery or exported to the grid? If I'm reading the GWA right the 10m high windspeed where I live is 9kms because in quite high up and its exposed .
You're likely to need a separate inverter, but speak to the manufacturer for guidance. Sounds like you could be in a good location for a wind turbine. Worth carrying out wind speed measurements over the winter before committing...
Only if you believe the less than accurate descriptions on Amazon. 😂😂😂
Agreed - covered in the video 👍🏻
Far better doing this at scale, oh and applied to solar too.
How to do this Octopus Tracker or Agile tariffs
Messing around doing either yourself is not and can never be economic.
Totally agree, Allan! 👍🏻